Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-01-28

her fuctuating quality, is the necessary
basis of society and of polite letters.
Probably it is the only thing that VIII
save us from the cast-ircn uniformity OF
the results of social science.
Take the novel. The interest OF the
NOVELETTE, real story, not the social
science tracts in lcve-making. And
the interest in the love-making in the
novel lies in the uncertainty and indl-
viduality of the female mind; that IS to
say, every case is positively new one.
Not only is it impossible to lay down
rule of action for this mind, rule
evolved from the study of innumerable
cases in fiction and in real life, but it is
next to impossible to predict what will
be its action from study of its own
tendency. Hence the inexhaustible in
terest of the comedy or tragedy, as it
may I've. and the infinite resources OF
the student Of love-making aud the adj
| justment of the relation of man to wo-
man, which is the great business Of life.
The interest in the novel, if it is a story
Of love, is inexhaustible not only be-
cause every woman is different from
every other, but because every real wo-
man has infinite variety of impulse and
action in herself Ii the lover in the
novel were sure to find his beloved
every day just the same, the public
would not care to read about more than
one interview. Fiction would perish of
monotony. If the female mind had a
law of uniformity, and the novelist
were to discover it, he would simply
kill the goose that lays the golden eggs
of literature. He would dissipate all
the mystery and charm of his art. But
there is no danger. The novel in this
is reflection of real life. The great
interest of the world lies in the uncer-
tainty attending love-making, and in
the variety, the incalculable mood and
/ action, OF woman in all circumstances.
Take an appeal to experience. 1t is
true that there are women who are
comparatively stolid, reduced to rule
and uniformity. But they arc uninter-
esting. Who is it that forever excites,
charms, attracts, and makes life lively
and varied and worth living? 1t is the
fuctuating female, the woman who
does and says the unexpected, who-to
make the case extreme-has tears one
minute and smiles the next, who can
pass easily from gay to grave, and keep
expectation on tiptoe for her delightful
variations. Life would be intolerably
stupid if she were otherwise.
Doubtless she somehow obeys law
Of her being, a higher law that cannot
be measured and reduced to rule. And
it is this quality of fluctuation that is
the hope and safety of society. We
have conceit in these days that if We
can get together sufficient number of
facts on any subject, we can evolve
certain general rule. We hope by-and.
by to make g science of polit-
ical economy out of our observ-
ations. We do, in fact, set up
q machinery of this sort based upon
facts, and are surprised that it does
not work, forgetting that we have left
out of the calculation such impondera-
bles as Imagination, need OF sympathy,
and other elusive mental and moral
conditions. Now woman, with her di-
vinely ordered variableness and obedi-
ence to the higher law of being, which
we conceitedly call illogical, stands for
tunately in the way of cast-iron
sociology, or science of it, by which
we are all expected to become parts of
"a piece of machinery moving with
clock-like precision. Man does not
know what is good for him. He thinks
he likes regularity and uniformity, and
he works at his formula to produce
them. If he could realize his idea he
would die of monotony. If lie were
able to predict from his experience
what any given woman would do next
that is any real woman whose individ-
uality is not crushed out of her-he
would find that the world had lost all
it's salt and relish. Changeable? Let
us hope so. If the wind did not blow
and shift, and give us now a zephyr and
now hurricane, the atmosphere would
stasnate, and life on the globe become
insupportable. 1t is perfectly we'll
known that man, left to himself, is
likely to fall into ruts and habits, and
grow uninteresting. We sometimes
say that he is uncertain. And so
he is in most disagreeable way; but
is plodding, uniform subject COM
pared with the other sex, whose meal
culable mood or humor is in human
life what the weather is to nature-sun-
shine, clouds, rain, animation. To
know the future would be a very
doubtful boon. But to know woman
to know one woman, or for q woman to
know herself, would take the zest out
OF life. What We are pleased in our
conceit to call in her sex the fluctuatinp